RoL: EAGER: DESYN-C3: A Self-evolving independent ATP battery for Pseudocells

RoL：EAGER：DESYN-C3：用于伪细胞的自我进化独立 ATP 电池

• 批准号: 1844310
• 负责人: Dan Luo
• 金额: $ 30万
• 依托单位: Cornell University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2018-08-15 至 2020-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1844310&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: RoL; EAGER; DESYN; C3; Self

Energy is essential for life. ATP is a biological energy molecule used by every known living organism. It is produced inside cells. This project will fabricate and evaluate the novel concept of an "ATP battery" that will continuously produce ATP in a controlled and independent manner. Electronic batteries can power a wide range of electronic devices. The ATP battery would energize a wide variety of synthetic cell functions. The ATP battery would have energy generating cells that convert chemicals fed to them into ATP continuously. The ATP generated could then flow downstream to synthetic cells, powering the production of vaccines, therapeutic drugs or other valuable products. This project also has a detailed education and outreach plan. It focuses on expanding the research experiences and horizons for high school and undergraduate students. ATP is an ideal energy choice for a synthetic cell. However, efficient production of ATP is currently limited to biological mechanisms. The creation of a controllable means to connect ATP generation to bioprocesses and supply it in a stand-alone manner, i.e. an ATP battery, would support the development of synthetic cells. Therefore, the primary goal of this project is to develop a device producing sufficient ATP in a continuous and controllable manner to drive external synthetic cells. An additional goal is to develop the battery in such a way that it can be evolved to meet the changing requirements of different synthetic cells. The proposed approach is inspired by electric batteries and cellular mitochondria. It builds on the research team's expertise and previous work on DNA hydrogels and synthetic biology. Utilizing cloned ATP synthase genes and combining 3D printing and microfluidics, the research team will build a stand-alone ATP battery that can convert a proton gradient to ATP continuously. The produced ATP will also be used to power the evolution of the battery cells themselves. The self-evolvable nature will make the proposed ATP batteries versatile, enabling applications beyond synthetic cells.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

能量对生命至关重要。 ATP是每个已知生物体使用的生物能分子。它是在细胞内部产生的。该项目将制造和评估“ ATP电池”的新颖概念，该概念将以受控和独立的方式不断生产ATP。电子电池可以为各种电子设备提供动力。 ATP电池会为多种合成细胞功能提供电力。 ATP电池将具有能量产生的电池，该电池将化学物质连续地转换为ATP。然后，产生的ATP可能会向下游流向合成细胞，为疫苗，治疗药物或其他有价值产品的产生提供动力。该项目还具有详细的教育和外展计划。它着重于扩大高中和本科生的研究经验和视野。 ATP是合成细胞的理想能量选择。但是，目前，ATP的有效产生仅限于生物学机制。创建可控手段将ATP生成连接到生物过程，并以独立的方式（即ATP电池）提供支持，将支持合成细胞的发展。因此，该项目的主要目标是开发一种以连续可控的方式生产足够的ATP的设备，以驱动外部合成细胞。另一个目标是开发电池，以使其可以进化以满足不同合成细胞的不断变化的要求。提出的方法灵感来自电池和细胞线粒体。它建立在研究团队的专业知识以及先前在DNA水凝胶和合成生物学方面的工作。利用克隆的ATP合酶基因并结合3D打印和微流体，研究团队将建立一个独立的ATP电池，该电池可以连续将质子梯度转换为ATP。生产的ATP也将用于为电池电池本身的演变提供动力。可自我辩护的性质将使拟议的ATP电池多才多艺，从而实现了合成细胞以外的应用程序。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并使用基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的影响审查标准，被认为值得通过评估来获得支持。